SOAZ

New Years in Crown King

2012-01-03T22:35:00.005-07:00

For New Years Eve we headed up to Crown King, Bradshaw City, Minnehaha Flats on to Kirkland Junction.

On Friday my buddy Dennis drove out from California to meet up at my house. He brought his dog Taggart which is the coolest, most even tempered dog I've met. Taggart is an Australian Sheppard.

Meet Taggart:

On Saturday morning we all met up near Carefree Highway to gas up. (There is gas in Crown King, but it's expensive and I tend to use it as a backup)

Ruff is Dennis's 79 Bronco. (I think it's a 79...)

Is Danica the best girlfriend in the world? Yes.

(airing down the tires)

On the way up we enjoyed taking some of the easy routes and some of the harder routes. It was fun and we managed to stay ahead of most of the slow traffic.

Last week after work I installed a new set of rear suspension arms from Total Chaos.

My stock bushings had worn out so bad that there was more air than rubber left in the bushings. These new arms were easy to install and they make the whole truck feel tight again. The loosey goosey feeling on and offroad was gone! I had even picked up a speed wobble at highway speed which was remedied by the Total Chaos arms. Plus, I like the zerk fitting so I can grease the pivot points as they dry out.

http://www.chaosfab.com/toyaccess_taco.php

Taking a break.

Ready to hold water. Almost new. This old tank was near the Oro Belle mine which is the largest mine along the Crown King backroad. The Ore from Oro Belle Mine was taken up to Crown King for processing.

The backroad had been recently graded which made it MUCH easier than past years to drive up. That being said new areas had become harder than ever because of the heavy rains we've had. I hope that with some more good rains the backroad will become hard enough to discourage some of the heavy use it gets. It's a selfish wish admittedly.

We made it up there in time for a late lunch.

The General Store in town. A pretty nice looking FJ55 "Pig" was parked at the store.

Heading up to the Old Mill.

I love old labels.

The food up at The Mill looked pretty darn good. I think on our next visit we need to try it out.

The Mill wasn't a Lumber Mill which is what most people bring to mind. It was a Stamp Mill which would process the raw Ore from the local mines.

The Stamps.

The restaurant is literally built around the remnants of the Mill.

Not a bad way to spend an afternoon!

Not a bad campsite.

Cowboy camp.

Taggart was happy with the snow camp.

Jeremy and Jenifer joined us at camp. Jeremy has his new Four Wheel Popup Camper set up for his year long trip to South America.

That truck setup was cool, but be also brought enough Elk for us to eat enough burgers to be stuffed! That down side is that I don't think I ever want a normal Cow burger again!

We had a great night. Plenty of firewood, plenty of Cazadores, plenty of Jameson and good friends.

The next morning we went to check out the "Crown King Bloody Mary Festival."

It wasn't happening so much...

Oh well, we enjoyed a lot of coffee, said goodbye to those not going down the back way and headed out.

That's a big pumpkin!

We took another break at Minnehaha Flats.

The squeeze!

Once we hit pavement we stopped at the bridge.

As usual, it was a great trip. Far away from crowded bars full of strangers. Near a bunch of my friends and a warm fire!

Winter Wonderland 2011. Flagstaff, AZ

2011-12-04T22:15:00.003-07:00

We went up to Flagstaff again this year for a "Winter Wonderland" trip. The timing was perfect!

Snow started falling a few hours before we hit the road. By the time we hit 4500 feet there was a couple of inches packed onto the I-17.

As we drove along in line where the highway was showing through I saw a pair of headlights passing some cars behind me in the fast lane. This guys was either very good or very stupid. When I looked in the rear view and saw the U-Haul trailer sliding sideways behind his SUV I knew he was the latter.

A few miles later I had to scratch the itch of seeing if my high beams would make it easier to see. I knew it wouldn't and shouldn't, but I had to try. Of course it made it much worse like driving in fog so I immediately turned them off. When I did only one of my normal beams came back on. Oops! Hell of a time to loose a headlight.

They had lasted 5 years, but now they die!? Oh well. Oddly enough it made it easier to see with only one headlight. There was enough moon light to see the road and less electric light made it easier to see through the driving snow. I was still worried about OTHER vehicles not seeing me as well. Fortunately, we made it safely.

It was great seeing it snow all day Saturday! Egg nog a plenty. It was a LAZY day.

On Sunday we headed out and did some snow wheeling.

The Dingo's running wild.

We even saw a few Mule Deer.

Poser

All in all, we accomplished nothing this weekend, except some relaxing. Mission complete.

Hunting Coues Whitetail in the Santa Rita's

2011-12-01T23:18:00.004-07:00

Thanksgiving weekend I had the opportunity to go hunting with a good friend and his dad. This area is so beautiful.

I hiked many miles each day which I thought would be easy, but with the rough, rocky, cactus filled terrain and the heavy backpack/Rifle I was wiped out at the end of each day.

The first morning was pure fog and drizzle.

Spot the hunter:

It was funny. For the sunset hunt I hiked up to the saddle of a bowl not too far from camp. Low and hehold I was staring right back at my parents house where D was. Just the night before I stood in town looking up and the Santa Rita's telling here I'd be right up there.

Back in camp we ate like kings! Elk Chili the first night. Eggs with sausage and peppers for breakfast. Then steaks with grilled veggies and pie afterward. Then the final night Bryon cooked up some awesome hot soup mostly from items he had grown.

Each day we saw lots of Does running around. These Coues Whitetail are spooked so easily that it's hard to see one closer than 400 yards unless you hunker down, site quietly and wait.

Some great spots to stop and glass.

Believe it or not you can see two other hunters from our group of 4 in this shot.

On the final day we were feeling like we may get skunked this trip. Then I heard a shot and Jeremy had gotten one! I offered to field dress it since I never had so I hiked over to him to do the dirty work. It was tough to do for the first time mentally, but what a learning experience!! Very glad I did it.

My Helle Eggen knife did great. It was so sharp that I never really had to cut. It was more as if I pointed at items and they were instantly cut. Very happy with it. Also, my Garman made sheath was great for getting at my knife quickly and easily!

It's nice and clean again!

Not long after J started hoofing the deer back to camp did I hear another shot ring out. Bryon had gotten one as well. A big Whitetail. He field dressed it and then we skinned them back at camp. I was so excited to have it all work out that I didn't even mind not seeing any Bucks for myself to take a shot at. Next time.

All in all it was a great trip with great people. As tough as it is to kill something and then start the work of harvesting it for use I think everyone should do it at least one. We all are responsible for killing animals, but most of us pay others to do it. Essentially, there is no way we can appreciate the animal that gave it's life for our leather seats, shoes, bag, steak, sea food etc if we are so detached from the process that the idea of doing it ourselves is repulsive.

It's not an easy or settling thing to do the first time, but it puts you back in touch with the life-cycle and how things work here on Earth. I highly recommend it, at least once.

Exploring Martinez Mine, The Coke Ovens and Battleaxe Trail.

2011-12-01T20:44:00.005-07:00

Early Saturday morning we headed out to Mineral Mountain Rd in between Florence Junction and Superior. We hit dirt and found the rest of the group who had camped out here the night before.

It looked like a couple of them went heavy on Cazadores the night before so their day was going to feel long! :-)

Within minutes of hitting the road we passed two passenger cars. It was odd to see cars down a road this far that only gets rougher and eventually turns into a 4x4 trail. Just after that we came up behind a group of stock, full size trucks trundling along the trail. We could tell that this whole group was new to offroading. Running boards still intact, big wheels and small tires. We noticed that none of them had radios and I wasn't optimistic about them pulling over to let us by. (A common offroad courtesy, just like on the road, is to pull over if someone comes up behind you.)

After several miles of watching them go rock crawling speed over stuff that was 15-20 mph trail for us we decided to pass when the opportunity arose.

My hopes lifted when they all stopped, but were quickly dashed when they all just stopped in the dead center of the trail. (Another courtesy is NEVER stop in the middle of the trail.) There was enough of a gap for our trucks in the rough side trail so we started to pass. About half way up the line of trucks they all hopped back in and started moving! Inexplicably they just kept cruising along even though our group was now interspersed into their...

Thankfully it all ended when their trip "leader" missed a turn and we all took it. One of the truck drivers was nice and apologetic for holding us up. He mentioned they were headed to Martinez mine. One of our trucks was barely able to make it there let alone stock full size trucks. It was about to be a LONG expensive day for them.

Within a mile we came up on a group of Suzuki Samurai's. This underwhelming truck on road is fantastic offroad and well respected in offroading circles. Because of this I guessed that this large group had radios and knew offroad etiquette. Sure enough withing 30 seconds of pulling up behind them they all pulled over and let us pass. What a relief to see friendly offroaders!!

This waterfall can be a tough obstacle if you use poor line choice. With the right line it's not too bad and I did it in my truck stock many years ago.

We kept heading for the mine. I forgot how amazing this whole area is.

Heading deeper into Martinez canyon.

We parked at the cabins and hiked to the mine. The trail to the cabins is doable on a dirt bike or even in my 4runner, but it's tough and breakage for a rather stock truck is just too high to risk. Plus a nice hike is always fun.

Old drive belts are still in place!

I love this shot.

Cool cave near the cabins. You can walk in the main entrance and there is a door with a small back exit. Pretty neat. One can just imagine the things it was used for back in the mining days.

Heading out.

Steve's 4runner is doing well.

Notice the grave. Haha. I think it's fake, but it's been there for over a decade that I've seen.

On the Coke Ovens trail this is the hardest spot. Well, it's the easiest spot to make a big error.

Great shot by Frank.

Making our way to the ovens.

Made it!

Great sky.

The charred inside of the ovens.

We camped. BS'd and finished off the Cazadores.

We woke up to a fantastic sunrise!

Off to Battleaxe trail we went.

This washout/sinkhole was worse that I'd seen it, but still drivable as long as you're careful. I wish I got a good shot of how deep it is. The drop off is directly to the left out of the frame.

More great shots by Frank.

Woohoo for tripods!

Due to the Arizona Trail being worked on in this area the whole trail had been graded flat. We made good time and enjoyed the sites.

We aired back up and ran over to Superior for some great Mexican food. If you want Mexican in Superior skip Los Hermanos which is the obvious one on the main highway and go down old Main St to Cafe Piedra Roja. We were all pleasantly surprised!

El Camino Del Diablo via Mountain Bike!

2011-11-05T15:15:00.017-07:00

So, I've been meaning to get around to doing El Camino Del Diablo. It's a 120 or so mile historic trail that has been around for over 1,000 years. In 1540 the great Coronado Expedition traveled the path en route to California.

More info on the Wiki page here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Camino_Del_Diablo

We headed out from Phoenix on Friday right after work and we decided to meet up in Gila Bend. Sadly we met up at the "Space Age Cafe." I am a fan of greasy spoon restaurants, but this was on another level. The place was filthy and the food was old, cold and nasty.

Maybe not the best place to eat before two long days on my bike, but alas the adventure of trying a shady place is too much fun to resist. I recommend you not try it!

We pulled into Wellton, AZ just east of Yuma and we headed south on El Camino Del Diablo road. Just after turning to dirt we pulled over and camped.

The next morning we awoke to the sound of people. The sound of people doing something. Sit ups I think! It was a group of young folks, too young to be actual marines, working out. We had camped at a spot they used along their morning run to work out. Once they got up and kept running I looked over and saw one of the most amazing sun rises I've ever seen.

I have to mention that this photo is in no way enhanced or retouched. It was that colorful!

I also want to mention that besides this picture and a few others all of the shots/video from this trip were taken by Bam-bam and Gingerfire. It was so nice to be able to concentrate on riding instead of picture taking. Plus, they got some amazing shots and video.

I suited up in my gear and we called into the Barry M Goldwater range. We had to give our names, license plates etc.

And off we went!

After about 25 miles I road up to everyone who was stopped. We took the obligatory pictures next to a tank and on a Heli pad in the middle of no where!

Stay on the road! Laser range to the sides!

Yup, better be aware of your surroundings and any vehicles approaching.

Don't ask me what this odd statue was. It was creepy awesome.

Then off we went again.

This section of the road was really nice compared to what was coming. I was able to cruise along at about 14 MPH which was pretty good for the Single Speed Rigid and the gearing I had on it.

Trying to stay relaxed and keep cranking out the miles.

I expected this route to be sandy, and it was. I expected it to be historical, and it was. What I didn't expect is for it to be so darn pretty. I have to say that it's one of the most beautiful desert routes in Arizona. The Saguaro's are bigger than in most other places and the rock formations are unique. Seeing it all from the perspective of the bike made it even more unique.

In a surprisingly short time we had left the Barry M Goldwater range and had entered Cabeza Prieta.

As the trail progressed it became more and more soft. From sand to silt. The riding was getting more difficult, but I was spoiled. Every time I ran out of water I would just pull up to my truck and refill. I carried enough Gu and cliff bars to keep me going strong until lunch.

We spoke to many Border Patrol agents along the way. They were all really nice and interested in the ride I was doing.

Ginger Fire was the second gnarliest. She was doing the whole trail and the ride back to Phoenix on a barely street legal dirt bike. That's a lot of miles.

For lunch we stopped at Tule Well. I was pretty ready for a break. The riding wasn't painful, but working so hard was getting to me.

Not a bad place to hang out!

Not long after lunch the real silt started.

I aired down from my already low 19 Psi to about 10 to try and stay on top of the silt. Riding in the lower ruts was almost impossible. If I rode in the center I could almost stay on top of the silt. At times I had to stand up and pedal. It's a weird sensation to stand up and pedal like you are on a huge hill, but look ahead and see you are on flat or even slightly down hill terrain. It was so thick it was grabbing both tires and trying to stop my forward movement!

In the back of my mind I had heard about a section that some Border Patrol agents had said was so bad and so deep that it made them want to set their trucks on fire!! I think we finally found it!

The look of someone that is dead beat!! At this point I was very glad to have the silt beds behind me.

Eventually we came upon the main Border Patrol outpost. It seems to move around a bit as Google Earth showed it in a different location.

As we came up the road we saw a group of migrants getting loaded into the Border Patrol truck. They had apparently decided to give up the trek as they ran out of some sort of supplies. The common thing, per the BP Agents we spoke with, was for them to take a seat under a shady tree and wait for the next BP Truck to pick them up.

From the BP outpost on it was up hill. Not very steep, but after 70 miles of riding a sandy uphill was pure pain.

I stopped to speak with one more agent and we talked for a while. He said I was the first mountain biker he'd ever seen on this road. I let him know that one other group had done the ride before me. Their trip report provided a wealth of info! Check it out their great write uphere: Bikepacking.net. His post provides valuable info whether you are riding a mountain bike, dirt bike or driving your 4x4 across this route!

Before I left the last BP Agent and headed for camp he mentioned that he'd let all of the other agents know to check on us throughout the night.

Home sweet home for the night!!

I was really happy with how Day 1 went. 12MPH average over 76 miles.

View El Camino Del Diablo. Day 1. in a larger map

Day 2.

I slept well and I didn't mine the BP Trucks coming by our camp throughout the night. We ate some breakfast, chatted with some more BP Agents and started the 40 mile trek to Ajo!

The route from camp to Ajo was almost entirely up hill. That, being tired from the day before, and the sand made it a tough day.

Just plugging away on the miles.

If you look like this:

Press the button!

You'd think that metal tracks would be a nice thing compared to the sand, but between some sharp edges and loose bits of metal it looked more dangerous than it was worth. Just when the tracks ended a single piece of metal was jutting up about 2 feet in the air. That's a day ender whether you're on a dirt bike or a mountain bike.

Dance Monkey dance, says D!!!! This little fella was in my truck when I "got it back" after I finished riding. I think I'll keep it.

Almost there! Just keep moving!

Towards the end we entered Organ Pipe National Monument.

As I was riding along I kept looking back for fast moving trucks. Since the smoothest line was often in the middle of the road I was worried about getting run over. I looked back and saw a huge plume of dust coming our way fast. I kept looking back trying to gauge when it would reach us. Right when I expected him to be on us I pulled over and road on the far right side of the road just to stay safe. D was following me and so she too hugged the right side of the road.

Then all of a sudden the dust was gone! When I looked back I could see the front end of a Chevy pickup hanging a ways back. He was now going the same speed as us. It's like he didn't want us to see him.

I thought about it and realized that it might be a government truck. If it was he was probably thinking he had come upon a drug runner or something. There aren't a lot of honest reasons someone would drive on the shoulder of a dirt road near the border doing 10 MPH. Unless, they were following a mountain biker! I swerved into the middle of the road so I wasn't obstructed by my truck and as soon as I did I could hear the truck approach.

It was a game and fish warden! He was wondering what my truck was up to, but once he saw my bike he just wanted to see how I was doing and how far I had come.

Coming to the finish line! It was great to have some friends to keep my spirits up and spur me on!

And I'm SPENT!!

40 Miles on day two. 11.4 MPH Average.

View El Camino Del Diablo. Day 2. in a larger map

We had some surprisingly good sandwiches at a little place called the Oasis Cafe. We then made our way back to Phoenix. Another great adventure in the books!

A big thanks to Sunday Cycles here in Phoenix for helping to make sure my bike was ready to go!!

Tour of the white mountains, 2011

2011-10-05T20:23:00.006-07:00

So it was time for the big race. I love the "Epic Rides" races. Specifically because they aren't really races. They are more like a gathering of people. Like-minded people that want to go and ride to see who will finish first.

So, I wanted to do better than last year, but life has a way of... getting in the way. I tried to ride as often as I could, but once a week was about as good as I could do. In the weeks leading up to the race I turned up the riding a bit. (This is contrary to what any pro would do as most of them tone down the riding in the weeks before a race so they are nice and strong.) I however, couldn't resist the foolish urge to try and make up for a lack of training.

I went out the Saturday before the race and spun out 55 miles on the single speed. Doing a similar elevation gain to the race course. I felt pretty good at the end, but my legs were sore and I took 2 breaks during that ride. On race day there would be no breaks and I'd be at elevation!'

The week leading up to the race I took it easy and just did one final ride 2 nights before for about 14 miles. I just wanted to make sure the bike and I were in working order!

(Side bar: about 4 weeks before the race I was riding my rigid single speed bike in Telluride. The allure of riding their "downhill" course got me to take the chair lift up. After a couple of runs and lots of fun I wrecked my rear wheel. Oops! Those are expensive so I took some old American Classic wheels the bike came with, taped them with Gorilla Tape, inserted some valves and made them tubeless.)

Needless to say, the test ride went well and the "new" tubeless wheels held air! Woohoo! Ready to race!

I headed up to Show Low and found a nice campsite right near the start line. I saw a couple of Toyota trucks so I knew it was a good neighborhood. As I pulled in the person parked next to me yelled "Hello, if you like beer and barbecuing feel free to come on by." Alright!! I knew this was a good camping neighborhood. I pulled over closer to my new neighbor Jesse.

No matter what kind of race I never sleep well the night before. Tonight was no different and I just laid there for the night.

I did notice this great Ecamper! I love these!

The morning of the race I walked around and checked out the start line. I was oddly calm. Funny, how no sleep will do that.

I was standing at the start line a bit early this time. Normally I start towards the back of the pack so there is less pressure and I can pass people as I go. For once I decided to start near the front of the pack. I let the pros all queue up in front of me and then found my friends Matt and Jeff who I've raced with in the past.

I asked Jeff and Matt who was going to win the race for Single Speed. They both pointed to two guys. One of them was standing next to me, Tom Ament who rides for Vassago. All of a sudden he said "Shit, I gotta get out of here." He started moving to the side of the starting gate and lifted his bike over the fence. He said his front fork blew. A seal or something must have gone. Doh!

I looked around and didn't see any other fully rigid bikes... Hmmm. Oh well. (last year I raced on an easier gear and a front suspension fork so this was going to feel pretty new) BAM! Off we went from the start line.

Matt was gone from sight right away and Jeff was pulling away. Yikes! I spun my gears as fast as I dare without generating any pain this early in the race. Finally about a mile in everyone started to settle. A few riders dropped back fast. I caught back onto Jeff's rear tire and we started weaving through the pack.

As we climbed I couldn't stay seated and pedal with my harder gear this year so I stood and pedaled past Jeff. I was hoping we'd fall back in line together when it flattened out. It was a weird feeling not hearing him behind me. At the first near 180 degree turn I looked back and didn't see him. The difference of 2 cogs on the rear sprocket made enough of an impact that we weren't going to be riding together.

When that realization hit it sort of well, sucked. Riding 60 miles together last year was a blast. It made the miles go by fast and feel like a big touring ride. I decided right then that if it wasn't going to be a ride with my buddy then I'd better make it count. I picked up my pace a few RPM's and got to it.

Eventually, I saw Matt's jersey. I hooked onto his rear tire and followed along. Again, it was the hill that helped me. He was spinning fast, but on the hill he was able to stay seated and pedal. I had to stand, but that made my pace a bit faster so I went for the pass when it was open.

Off I went solo. I hammered through the singletrack and the long road section. On the road I wished for a couple more teeth on my rear sprocket. I spun to keep up with geared riders and I tucked in behind them on the down hills.

I kept this up with some see sawing thrown in. (I pass them on the up hill, they pass me on the down hill) Eventually I beat out a couple of geared riders and came upon a fit looking riding with "chain suck." Right as I passed he yelled "Got it! See you in a minute single speeder!!" DOH! Haha, I love the good natured challenges of other riders.

Sure enough in a few miles I heard him ride up behind me. Off he went in the section of the course that looked like a cabbage field. The only problem was that the cabbage were really rocks. This section was about picking good lines. Miles and miles of it. Thank goodness for caffeine.

I was eating caffeinated "Gu" packets like candy at this point. Trying to keep my mind focused on picking perfect lines.

I knew one wrong move, literally less than one inch off and I would have a bent wheel and a long walk.

I felt strong right up until the finish physically, but mentally I was fading. I think the lack of sleep made my mind wander. My legs were spinning as fast as I could, but my lungs were hurting too. Damn asthma. I had my inhaler, but the second half of the course is so technical it doesn't leave much time for eating let alone inhalers.

I saw riders for Pivot and Form bicycles which was a boost to my mind and ego. I hung onto their tires and we had a good group of three bikes rallying along. Passing the 35 miler's was the toughest part. Most of them got right over, but a few refused to move over. It took some time to find room to pass, but eventually we all made it through to clean air.

About a mile from the finish I felt so light headed I thought I might pass out on the bike. Yikes! Just keep spinning!

I made it. 7th place in single speed and 23rd over all. MUCH better than last year and much better than I had planned.

Woohoo!

I saw Tom walking by with his bike. Turns out he pulled off a 6th place finish with the blown out fork. A rigid is one thing, but a blown fork will lower the bike and cause you to hit the pedals and frame on lots of rocks. He must have had a bumpy 60 miles!

At the finish I saw my buddy Jon and we partook in some free beer thanks to Epic Rides and New Belgium!!

Jeff and Matt finished strong a short time later. Here Jeff comes across the line.

We hung out with old friends and new. The rain never showed and we enjoyed a perfect day.

Toyota Camp.

A free tree from Todd at Epic Rides!

Future racer.

We watched the rain fall around the area, but none for us thankfully.

I was so jacked up by the good finish and the immense amount of caffeine that I didn't sleep much at all, again!

What a great day!

The next morning we woke up to rain and a muddy field. After a giant coffee we headed back home. Another great weekend.

Custom Handmade Leatherwork

2011-09-20T19:53:00.011-07:00

I'm so excited!! My new knife sheath is here.

I am a big fan of anything handmade with skill. It's such a rare commodity these days.

Whether it be fabricating with metal, leather, wood or anything else I think it's amazing how style, hard work and a bit of art mix together into something that is one of a kind. It can't be duplicated by a machine. Something that is truly hand made has the personality and the skills of the maker built into it.

I am so excited to finally have something that is custom made just for me. A good friend of mine has been a fabricator of metal and leather for many years. From the good old days where he fabricated Trophy Trucks during the heyday of Ford's Rough Riders desert racing to the leather work he does for cowboy action shooters, motorcycle seats etc!

I've had my Helle Eggen knife for many years, but the leather sheath that it came with fell apart after a short couple years of hard use. Thankfully the knife is made to last a life time or more. I hope to pass this knife down to my children some day.

If you need any leather work I can put you in touch with Dennis. Here is his facebook page, but shoot me a message and I can send you his phone number or here is his email: ruff 79 bronco at gmail dot com. (It's spelled out funny like that so the address doesn't get picked up by the folks who love to send tons of spam email! Use your noggin and it should be clear what his email is without the spaces and items spelled out.)

I apologize for the bad pictures.

Of course this sheath will get a lot of use over the next few years!

The detail work is my favorite part.

Here are a couple shots of his other work, but the list of items he can make is much longer than what's below. I particularly like the custom motorcycle seats he's created. Some day when I have the right bike, I'll be placing an order.

CO. Day 9 and 10: Stoner Ski Resort, Mancos, Cortez, New Mexico, Greer, to Beehive Springs, Phoenix

2011-09-20T19:15:00.006-07:00

We woke up late and took our time descending the mountain. It was the last 5 digit elevations we'd see for a while.

I had to grab a driving picture of the Stoner Ranch. Behind it are the still cut in Ski Runs and the chairlifts. I wonder if they keep it running to go and hit up some turns for their friends in the middle of winter.

As we headed through New Mexico I was struck by how ugly this part of the state is. The towns are dirty and the people all seem angry. This is from three trips through this area, all on different highways of course. I hate to say it, but that's what this particular area seems like. I think it's more a product of poverty than anything else.

A resounding feature was Shiprock. It's absolutely impressive. We didn't drive into the park to avoid tourists, but it was great to see such an amazing view.

As we traveled south we entered the New Mexico I know and love. It was gorgeous! It reminded me of the areas near Taos, but albeit at lower elevation. As we drove through New Mexico we drove along a desolate highway that was under construction for about 2 hours worth of driving. They were widening a highway that almost no one uses. About another hour south we turned onto a highway that was on my GPS and map as paved. About 100 yards later it went to dirt. I was happy, but it was funny that one that was supposed to be paved a decade before was still dirt. On the other hand, one that had no one on it was getting a 25,000,000 American Reinvestment act face lift. Oh well, such is government.

We had a great time on the dirt and eventually dropped right on to the US60. The 60 took us right into Arizona. We drove around Greer and quickly ran away with all of the people playing "weekend camper" at the fancy resorts! They were everywhere. It felt like attack of the Scottsdale Zombies.

We found a great spot with no one around for miles. I was surprised we were able to with so many campers around. As I got out of the truck I felt a sharp pain! Again and again. On my arm the first couple times and then on my leg the next 4 times. Yikes! I was dancing to make sure it was out of my clothes before I jumped back in the truck. We saw several angry bee's buzzing outside the front window trying to get at us. Yikes!

As I pulled up the map and GPS to find another place to go I noticed we were smack dab on top of Beehive Springs... DOH!

As funny as it was we soon realized after traveling several miles that Beehive Springs was no more bee populated than this whole area. We careful set up camp and got a nice and smokey fire going to deter the bees. Once they went to sleep we had a great night reading and eating a chicken stir fry.

It struck me how amazing that on our 9th night camping we were eating food this fresh that had been brought along the whole adventure. Wow, I love my freezer/fridge!

Moooo! And good night.

The next morning we got up nice and late. Our subconscious not wanting to head back down in elevation to the heat and responsibilities of real life. We drove through Show Low, Heber, on to Payson, Sunflower, Four Peaks and then Phoenix. The great trip was done, but many more would follow. It was hot, but as we drove through town I knew it was a great trip because we felt like foreigners in our own town.

Hope you enjoyed it.

T and D

CO. Day 8: Kite Lake, Stony Pass, Silverton, Purgatory, Colorado Trail

2011-09-19T22:22:00.005-07:00

So, we woke up and drove down from Heart Lake towards Highway 550 after spending a while heading down roads that the Forest Service had closed. Several showed they would go through and cut down to Stony Pass, but never did. It's all part of the adventure.

As we headed towards Stony Pass we saw this sign.

The handlebars of the bike it swing back and fourth. That was cutting it close!! This section before Stony Pass was actually a lot rougher than the road to come. We saw two trucks with flat tires that had it under control, but I could tell they were in over their heads. They both insisted that help was on the way so we kept on cruising.

Heading along Sweetwater Creek. I think that signs been there for a while.

Stony Pass is pretty, but it was Friday before a huge holiday weekend and so it was what we were calling crowded. Sure it was only 15 or so trucks, but it was enough to make D and I hurry out of here.

Coming down the west side of Stony Pass there are some amazing remnants of Ore tramways.

I wonder how many more years these buckets will hang up there.

This building was the lower tramway building. The wires from the ore buckets went right into it. Even better I could see that the windows were of a newer era and there was a For Sale sign on it. We had to walk up and grab a flyer. For the price of a normal home in say Orange County you could own a 100+ year old piece of history and live in it!

Wow!

The holes are sealed up, but this is part of your new home. I can just picture the rich ore dumping out.

There is even a fire escape, if the fire is bad enough to trust 100+ year old wood!

Not a bad back yard!

This tramway building is down in the main valley on the way to Silverton. It's on the property of a modern mine. Hopefully the newer roof keeps the rest of the building preserved for a long time to come.

Perfect for a ride to work or to take ore down the mountain!

We dropped by Silverton very briefly, but the crowds had come to town. We found a brief respite at the city park and then we headed out. First we had to drop by the steam engine.

The perfect grocery getter for the San Juans!

As we drove up and out of Silverton I saw a 3rd generation 4runner heading my way. It's funny that we both instantly recognized each others trucks. As he flashed his lights I flashed mine. Haha!

I turned around and we chatted for a bit. It was Jake Quinones of New Mexico Backroads. He was headed up to Ouray for the long weekend to do some exploring and photography. His pictures are just amazing. Have a look at the link above.

We drove down the highway and turned off on Lime Creek. I've heard that this side road that parallels the highway is really pretty. We had a good time being on dirt, but considering the mileage we traveled the day before I was ready to be off of this particular side trail. I was exhausted. We didn't see a lot of mine buildings so we just kept cruising and listening to Jason Ellis on Sirius.

Once we were back on the highway we headed to Purgatory (Durango Mountain Resort, but I refuse to call it by the new name) and up the Hermosa Trail that I mountain biked the week before. We raced up in elevation until we were at a spot that we found a week before but deemed "too high" in elevation to camp after just coming from Phoenix. We were more than prepared since we'd been camping at 11k to 12k feet.

Tonight's camp was amazing. We were sitting at 11,800 feet right on the Colorado Trail. The view to the left.

The view to the right.

In camp.

Not a bad view. What a great night!!

A great night for reading! And smores, gotta have smores!

I had the first tinge of sadness that the trip was coming to an end. We had a night or two more, but considering how long we'd been traveling that was a very short time.

CO. Day 7: Engineer Pass, Animas Forks, California Pass, Poughkeepsie, Ouray, Cinnamon, Carson City, Heart Lake, Colorado Trail, Continental Divide...

2011-09-16T21:04:00.017-07:00

Yes, it's a long name for a long day. With a new tire I had an itch to explore!

We woke up and headed out pretty early. It was blueberry muffins, bananas and hard boiled eggs for breakfast. Quick, but delicious!

We were just a few short miles from pavement and then into Lake City. Lake City was crowded, but the holiday weekend was coming so it was expected after all. I spoke to a friend tonight about Lake City. It's almost painfully quaint. It leaves me feeling it might all be fake. I have to say that the views and beauty of the surroundings aren't fake. They are the real deal.

Even the people, not just the ones waiting to sell or serve you, seem happy. We watched as a mom road her old cruiser bicycle towards the local school with her little son sitting on the rear fender with his legs dangling in the air and back pack on. They looked painfully happy.

In summary, I think I like these towns, but there is a catch. The catch I would guess comes in the form of working tirelessly during the few snow free summer months trying to make enough money off the tourists to last the slow winter months. That doesn't sound too bad, but it also seems frustrating that their best weather months are filled with work.

Ultimately, I guess the best goal is to move to town like this with plenty of money so enjoyment becomes your first priority.

Not a bad grocery getter here in Lake City!

As we fed the 4runner I looked up to see the dirt bike riders from the day before parked across the street getting themselves fueled up.

I do love these old signs!!

I always notice something new on Engineer pass. From this angle this section of the aqueduct looks like a walking thing from Star Wars. My friend Heidi is laughing that I don't know what the name of it is, but tell me I'm wrong!

Yah, well, that's what I saw at this early morning hour.

I would love to use this outhouse. I think it would be both terrifying and fun.

This damn always boggles my mind. This giant wall would hold the water of the river back until it rose to the point of the pipe. Then it would run down a long tube that was hanging on a lattice work of wood into the town/mine. It's sort of a short distance aqueduct.

These sections of thick aspens are so striking. We took a small side trail that we've never explored. I'm glad we did.

We also saw this old chimney still standing along the side of the road.

Once back on Engineer Pass road we came across the giant brick Kiln used for making coke. Not that kind of coke. Coke is what coal cooks down to. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coke_(fuel)

Obligatory picture of water. In Arizona it's just "that" rare.

I can only imagine how many times someone used this spot for the land owners to feel like putting up a sign. I didn't feel any urge to relieve myself there, but I guess some people do.

This is what comes to mind every time someone mentions a cabin. Since we first spotted it on our first Colorado trip it burned into our memory. The bridge is such a great expense, but it looks like such a cool way to come home! There is a road up to it on the other side of the river, but the bridge is so much more fun.

Notice the Marmot on the bridge. I could tell he was a rare breed of Guard Marmot.

Ah, the vistas!

Not far over Engineer Pass we saw what looked like a horse tied up. As we got closer the giant ears told me it was a mule. I was perplexed why a mule would be hanging out on the top of a mountain with no one in sight.

Once I walked over the mule was tied to a metal stake in the ground. Not one that had been placed there recently. It was a permanent sort of metal ring sunk into the rock. It seemed ever more strange now. Why ride a mule up to the top of a mountain. Then what would you tie it up to go and do? Maybe he is an elusive marmot hunter.

We made it over to Animas Forks.

Lean to the left.

Lunch is ready!!

Stairway to... hell?

I have a lot of favorite cabins. This one is another up on top of a pass. With a nice grocery getter too!

I can picture the ore buckets flying along from tower to tower as they go down the mountain.

The minerals tint the rocks all sorts of different colors. This white one was pretty striking.

This precariously perched boiler is quite a site. It is sitting exactly how we first saw it 5 years ago. I'm sure it's sat there for a lot longer than 5 years so hopefully it will be there next time.

Yet another pass.

Just before reaching this pass we had come along a couple of guys in UTV's cruising along very slowly. I hate to honk the horn and ruin the peaceful feeling, but after following these guys for a mile I was getting tired of going 4MPH. Finally they pulled over a bit, but I could tell by how they pulled over that it wasn't to let me pass. One guy got out to relieve himself and almost fell over when he saw my truck sitting about 15 feet behind him. Whoops!

I waved and was able to squeeze by. As we stood on the top of California Pass I saw them and a few other quads coming along. I knew we had to get going before we were stuck behind them again!! Run for it!

Looking down at Poughkeepsie gulch!

Heading into the gulch.

Uh oh! I was just glad that it wasn't raining. The last time we did this trail it was raining and the 4runner was almost completely stock. On a mountain top to our left was a group of hikers watching us descend the gulch. Now would be a bad time to make a mistake. I always hate an audience.

The toughest section of the trail. The sign says "Winch Point."

She's just planning her attack...

Once we got to the bottom of the gulch we headed into Ouray. I got a call from my buddy T and he had just rolled into town for some hiking, wheeling and exploring over the holiday weekend. We met up with him at Mouse's Chocolate. I'm pretty sure if we lived in Ouray I'd be broke and D would keep Mouse's in business all on her own!

After a quick meeting with an old friend we headed back up the mountain to go and do Cinnamon Pass!

Thank goodness for self timers or we'd never have any pictures of us!

Carson City!

At this point we were already on a side trail from Cinnamon Pass. The road to Carson City is rough, but nothing too bad. No car could make it up the road in it's current state, but a high clearance truck should do fine if it's dry. Once we drove past Carson City, which is the turn around spot for most traffic, the road got smaller and more rough. We had Heart Lake in our sites.

Once we were at the top of the pass the sun was getting low. It had been a long day! We headed down the marked trail toward Heart Lake. This section of trail runs right along the spine of this mountain. It's pretty neat because at this point you are on both the Colorado Trail and the Continental Divide.

This one is the Continental Divide sign.

The Colorado Trail sign.

Way up here in the middle of no where we come upon this...

I hate it when this happens.

So, along the Colorado/Continental Trail we went. Up, up and up to well over 13,000 feet. We were hoping to be finding a camp very soon and we were just climbing more. We should have caught a glimpse of Heart Lake by now, but all we could see is further mountain to climb.

Finally we were at the top. This road turned into a field of sharp rocks for as far as I could see. After one flat on this trip, I really didn't want another one.

I was possessed, rock field or not I wanted to see Heart Lake!

Finally as the sun sank low in the sky we caught partial sight of a lake. That was enough to keep me going over this desert high mountain road.

The colors of the sunset were absolutely amazing. As we went down a steep dirt hill it was almost enough to take my mind off the fact that if it rained we had no chance of getting back up this deep soil hill.

It's steeper than it looks.

As we came over this hill there it was. Our first sight of Heart Lake! What a long day coming it was.

That was worth stopping for a second to enjoy just a moment of celebration!

The sky was on fire. Clearly it was giving us the celebration we needed.

We found a great site right next to the lake, got a warm fire going, and made some hot dinner. That was an epic day.

CO. Day 6: Montrose, Soldier Creek, Lake City

2011-09-15T20:07:00.004-07:00

By the time we woke up our new hunter friends had started their long trip home to Kansas. As we ate breakfast I kept going over some of the stories we heard the night before.

I was picturing one of our new friends on the giant ranch that he was caretaker of while putting up with the rich and annoying lawyer that came out to "play cowboy" each month.

We took our time this morning. I knew the tire wouldn't show up until about 1-3PM in Montrose so we were in no rush!

I love old signage. This one is in Montrose.

Look at this new EXPO Vehicle!! I think it's an obscure Earthroamer model. Sort of like an item that's on the "secret" menu such as "animal style" at In-N-Out!

I really do love it. So much more personality than modern vehicles.

As we sat in the McDonalds parking lot eating our PB&J and using their internet we had to start laughing. How random. We were in a town far from home that looked just like any other for the most part. Instead of tour the many chain stores and restaurants we were holed up in our truck having a mini adventure in the middle of no where. (It was our version of a couch and blanket fort to hide from the city)

All that being said, we did enjoy the older parts of Montrose near main street. Some really cool old homes etc.

Great success!!!

They had the tire. It arrived just a little after 1pm! Not bad! Now let's RUN FOR THE HILLS!

We headed east toward Salida. As soon as we found our dirt road we turned south and back to the mountains and elevation. We would watch the GPS and count off each thousand feet. As soon as we were at 8500 feet I called it. It was now okay to camp anywhere from here up.

We looked out for good camp sites as we drove. After a while we passed a guy on his dirt bike with the wheel off. Looks like a flat. We stopped to make sure he had everything he needed. It hit me when I saw him that I've been in that same situation all alone and would just love for someone with compressed air and real tools to show up!

He had it under control so we pressed on. After a while we came upon a couple more guys on bikes and let them know their buddy was just about a mile back.

Fast forward about 15 minutes and many miles. We come up to a road grader working away and as we pass (and do the customary "dirt road" wave to the road grader) there are two more dirt bikers. Hmmm, we rolled the window down and these guys looked worried. They asked if we'd seen anyone on dirt bikes and it felt great to be able to tell him where everyone was at and what they were doing.

After passing a herd of rabid killer deer with their fawns we found a great campsite!

Not a bad little rock outcropping view from camp.

This is a good one!!

So is this one. The original awesome canned beer.

It was a relatively short day. We both did a lot of reading today. It takes a good day like this for me to get back into reading. Life gets so high paced sometimes that sitting still and reading a book becomes inconceivable. Never let the stress of life and obligations get to the point where you can't find a way to justify some time for yourself to read.

With that public service announcement, we ate some extremely sugary snacks and then went to bed. :-)

CO. Day 5: Governor Basin, Ridgeway, Blue lakes

2011-09-14T18:13:00.003-07:00

Another day away from it all!

Ahhh yes! What a view to wake up to.

To leave the area we could either go back the way we came or go forward. I walked the trail ahead and it looked doable, but the trail was about 4-6 inches thinner than my track width. Ouch! I could tell that mostly quads had driven this section over the last few years. It was pretty and exciting!

We headed up to Governor Basin after breakfast.

Some more pretty mine ruins.

A not "too" old light on this mine car.

I love this area! D took some great wildflower photos.

The ol truck.

So many roads to nowhere.

There are a couple of still active mines in the area.

There are some great sights along Yankee Boy Basin.

D and I love this mine entrance. There are a couple sections of ladders down a sheer cliff to a horizontal mine opening just above a rushing river. Now that's some dedication to get to work each day!

After popping into Ouray we decided to head up Mineral towards Animas Forks. About half way up the hill a couple of the plugs in the slashed tire blew out. I replugged them, but I knew then that I shouldn't be getting more remote without securing a new tire first. We changed plans and decided to camp somewhere on the way to Montrose.

As my buddy Dennis would say. It looks like a fat kid stuffing his face with licorice.

There is always time to take photos of the flowers while replugging tires.

Tracks to nowhere.

I took a little hike to see the rest of this old mines operation up the hill.

Looking down at the "million dollar highway."

This ones for my brother. To entice him on a Colorado motorcycle trip!

We always see deer in peoples yards in Ouray. I'd have to say that it's a sign of a good town. haha.

Well, I pushed the tire as far as I could without a stitch kit. (I've always had good luck with plugs, but with a stitch kit this would be an easy fix. Just dismount the bead on the tire and literally stitch the gash up with a thick rubber patch and some glue from the inside.)

As we drove up a graded dirt road the plugs blew back out again. I concede defeat! Bring on the spare!! (for the first time in a non-racing situation, I put a spare tire on. Damn!)

D was happy for a few minutes to read.

A couple people asked me for pictures of my rear lighting setup. Here you go. It's all pretty simple and the lights themselves are waterproof.

These LED's are all along the rear hatch of the truck. Great for cooking dinner back there at night.

"I want more licorice!!!"

I also grabbed some pics of the jack I carry. It's a basic enough aluminum floor jack. I removed the front and rear wheels and fitted it with an aluminum skid. It's just tig welded right to it. With the heavy steel wheels removed it's very light.

Okay, back on the road to find a nice camp for the night.

After driving around for a while we realized that the few spots to camp were taken. We spoke with a couple hunters and thankfully one of them took pity on us. These guys were great! They've been coming here for 20 years to camp and hunt and knew of a secret spot! It was a tight squeeze, but once I got the truck on there... well... take a look.

Oh happy day.

Now that we were settled in, our new hunter friends came by to see if we wanted to come and visit their nice warm fire. We went up there and over the course of several hours we got to know them like you might know someone after several years.

After hearing all about each others life stories we headed back to our camp for some giant smores yet again.

Listening to a river is a great way to fall asleep! It was an easy day, just what we needed.

CO. Day 4: Black Bear, Telluride, Imogene, Ouray, Yankee Boy

2011-09-12T18:40:00.013-07:00

Day 4! We woke up to London fog and dew all over the place. It was great! Keep in mind that we are still both infatuated with cold weather or weather in general for that matter. At home it's been 105+ for over a month. No moisture and no relief.

Waking up to this was sweet relief. I decided I was wearing shorts again!

As I walked about taking pictures of the great views a man in full real tree camo walked up the deserted track in front of me. It's an odd thing. As a young adult I would have been concerned. (At least that's my guess. Scary hunter person or something) I was relieved and excited to see a fellow outdoor lover. He said he was up in the saddle of a mountain not too far away camping and looking for bucks.

It's deer archery season. I asked about the "predator doe" fromt he night before and he said that there are so many deer that doe's are rarely hunted. Therefore they're fearlessness.

He mentioned out of concern that during the night's rains the road washed out about a half mile down the road. He said that he parked his truck before it not daring to try and drive over the wet, muddy, tilted mess.

We chatted for a while and it struck me how nice everyone we'd run into had been. I surmise it's a little like desert culture. (Modern day desert culture excluded since with modern inventions people don't NEED to rely on each other. Ex. Phoenix, AZ) In older desert cultures, like Morocco for example, people always welcome a stranger/traveler into their homes for help or a meal. It comes from the whole society understanding that no ones survives without others help. In the mountains it's similar. Every trip we make here we have to help at least a couple people out and vice versa. It's a good thing in our opinion.

After packing up we headed down the hill to see what we were in for. It looked pretty bad! The coal black fresh soil looked loose and it was at such an angle that it would get tippy.

Laziness prevailed. The thought process went something like this: His truck was a stock Tacoma. My truck had lockers, larger tires, was aired down etc. So, we went for it. It was mushy, tippy, and a little stupid. Not that stupid. I know my truck better than most and I took the calculated risk. We made it across with no problems thankfully.

When we woke up this morning we decided to forgo breakfast and coffee. Why, you might ask? So we can eat breakfast with the best view in town. Atop Black Bear pass overlooking Telluride.

We hit the trail and made quick work of passing a big tourist truck trundling along Black Bear Road.

We took the hard road up. There is an option near the top. The harder section may be worth it just because it's pretty. The whole trail is extremely well signed letting folks know where not to go and what illegal bypasses are closed. The section below wasn't signed and heavily traveled so I assume it's okay. It's been there for so long it's on older maps as well.

Toyota commercial at the pass.

Always a good sign to see letting you know that the big RV's aren't around the next corner. Although, it might normally mean the trail is lightly used, up on Black Bear it's best to go early in the morning so you don't end up behind an entire 4x4 club's group.

Well, it was only 9:30, but then again we had breakfast to make!

Near the top we came upon a good looking white Jeep Rubicon from Airpark Jeep right next to my office in Scottsdale, AZ. Turns out the Jeep was a new 2012 with the more powerful motor and a manual transmission. Nice! The best Jeep available in my opinion, besides the J8 of course. (I love the J8 and plan to steal it from my buddy Scott, shhhh!!! It'll be our secret!)

We caught up to the Jeep and UTV that was with him below and chatted for a bit. Turns out the owner of the Jeep had never done Black Bear in addition to this being the first trail with his new truck! Now that is a heck of way to break it in. Also, it's a heck of a way to learn your truck or get killed. Let's see which happens! The folks in the UTV weren't street legal so they couldn't go down into Telluride with it. They asked if I could help their friend in regards to getting down Black Bear. Sure, we said!

Skinny shelf road behind.

Just a side note. I need to find out if Marmot's taste anything like chicken. If they do I'm going to get a license and self support the trip from hunting. We must have seen a thousand. Not "like" a thousand, but at least that many. They were all over the place!!

Just heading down the hill.

The fella with the new Jeep was really nice. He didn't mind me butting in on his Jeep and making suggestions on what to do and more importantly what NOT to do. "Stay away from the lockers, leave the sway bar disconnect off. Enjoy and use that great 4 to 1 transfer case instead of the brakes when you can." Jeep fell: If you ended up finding this blog you should head on out to the Overland Expo. You asked how I knew to instruct as well as so much about your Jeep. I'm a sometimes instructor at the Expo.

It was contagious to see that ear to ear grin mixed with dread on his face. It reminded me of the first time I came down Black Bear. As they say, there can only be one first time. It's really true in all things.

Our new Jeep friend was doing really well. He kept it slow and never slipped a tire.

Now, that's a view.

I was reminded how much I love the turning radius of my 4runner.

Lot's of mine openings. This one was literally on the trail. I had missed it before.

This is near the big scary/tippy part of the trail. From here down the trail is one way. To be honest it's really one way the whole time. If you were to run across someone at most other parts one of you would be backing up on some sketchy road!

First good look at Telluride. Notice the old mine rigging above.

This is where your heart first misses a beat if it hasn't already. "Wait, the road just drops off. I think it's washed out. Is that how it's supposed to look!!??"

I wish I would have caught your name fella. After a brief talk about how, yes it will be both awesome and scary, he headed off. I walked behind the truck with words of encouragement and also because I felt responsible at this point. If his truck started veering into a bad line I wanted to say something. He did it perfectly so I just shouted words of encouragement. Not bad for a brand new truck!

Now there is a good one for ya! If you read this shoot me a message and I'll get you a high quality copy without the watermark.

This is where it can get sketchy for tall, top heavy, lifted trucks. They have a much worse time here than the stock ones.

This is a shot of the turn in the previous shot looking back up at it. I walked down with him and then a couple bikes came around the corner. This is not a good place to learn front brake discipline on a dirt bike! Wet, steep, and big consequences.

I said farewell to our new friend. He headed off to get back to his friends and drink a morning sixer I'd guess. Anything to quell the nerves after the first time doing this trail.

Walking back up to the breakfast spot where I parked.

Similar shot without the Jeep there. There is a rock that tilts you out just at the moment the cliff is most near and you have to turn right.

I was enjoying the eggs and bacon so much I almost forgot to take any pics of the spot. I just grabbed one with the camera-phone.

My truck was much higher, had a roof rack that was loaded and most importantly has no sway bars anymore. I knew it would be fine, but it all added a bit of "first time" anxiety not knowing what to expect.

Off we went!

Where did the road go!?

The first time we did this road we were headed down all alone just like this time . In the morning with a light drizzle. It's when I first instituted "quiet time." From that moment on D knows that if I say, quiet time, that it's some stuff that's a bit sketchy and I need to listen to every single noise going on. Including to hear my many thoughts.

Go to the video footage:

The road goes on into Telluride.

The old mining era power generating station. Someone shoot me a line if the caretaker position ever opens up! I'm serious.

Notice the steel line. Along it runs a gas powered motor to pull a little aluminum bucket fit for 2 to the top. It's the only way the caretaker can get to the home in winter. How is that for a grocery run or worse yet a run to the bar.

Eak!

We walked around Telluride for a bit and then I decided I needed to take advantage of the free lift passes at Telluride resort.

I took the Gondola up and did the "double blue" down hill run. Now, on a 29er fully rigid single speed it was still fun. I thought that was easy enough so I transitioned to the black diamond Pan-Coaster run. Not my smartest moment. I fancy myself a technical rider, but I was in for a treat. It was fairly technical, but ridable at first. I was pushing it way too hard because I kept picturing someone on a downhill bike flying up behind me. There was no one there being a Monday morning, but it made me take bigger risks than I would have. As I flew around a turn I had a delayed reaction. "I think I just read a sign that said "bypass."" What the heck did that mea...OH MY!! Ahead, down a 10 foot drop was a ramp and then air. A big air over an entire cat track (Think a wide jeep trail). I locked up the brakes for many reasons. The little rigid bike stopped within inches of the edge and with one foot un-clipped I almost fell right off.

Phew! I made it! I walked around the drop off and the bike came down in a less than graceful fashion. When the rear tire hit I heard a PING! Oops, there goes a spoke. Now some air. I had to get on an ride to give the tubeless sealant a chance to fill the hole. I got on and rode until the rear tire was almost flat. Pumped it up and kept riding. The hole was sealed and I finished the run just fine.

Angry about hurting my bike, but fine.

Without a working wheel I loaded the bike up and headed back to Telluride.

Once D and I met up we headed for Imogene Pass.

As you ascend Imogene you get a great view back at Black Bear Pass. The sharp looking Z markings on the side of the mountain are the switchbacks from the video above.

Lots of tractors on the pass's this time of year. They need to do as much maintenance in the few and short snow free months.

Approaching Tomboy.

It's interesting and a bit sad to see the sites deteriorate. From just a few short years ago some buildings had completely fallen and most had noticeably gotten worse.

Above the tree line and above the "anything but moss" line as we near the pass.

The old Mailbox up at the pass.

Ah shucks I'm a lucky guy.

Hey, I'm cold. She stole my flannel!

Looking back at the last section we just ascended of Imogene Pass.

As we came down Imogene I wanted to check out this mine entrance off to the side of the main trail.

Upon seeing there was nothing else we wanted to explore I did what I always do when leaving an old mining area, back up. Just in case there are old bits of metal such as nails I always back up as apposed to venturing closer to the mine/debris in a sweeping turn around when leaving.

This time my luck ran out. I backed up and instantly heard a bad noise. Bang, WHOOOOSH!!! Then nothing. The weird part is that the whoosh was only for about 5 seconds. I've never had a tire loose all it's air so fast. That is a very bad sign.

I plugged the hose into my air tank and aired it up really quick and as fast as I added it, the air rushed back out. At least finding the slashed opening was easy! I jacked it up and pulled the bum tire. Spare, you say? No, I always refuse to use a spare until necessary. An old friend taught me that just about every flat can be plugged. I threw 5 plugs in it, aired her up and listened. (Use a little spit when soapy water is lacking.) No bubbles. NOT bad! (of course it was under no load at that moment so I knew that was not going to last)

It's worth a shot. I threw it on and drove around in a couple circles. After I had chucked the offending rock as far as I could. (While almost throwing my arm out of it's socket) The site must have been peculiar. A guy driving in slow circles with a lady crouched over walking and cocking her head over at the right rear tire. No noises D said. Good! So let's run it down to Ouray and re-check tire pressure to see how fast of a leak it is.

When we checked the tire pressure upon leaving Ouray it was only 2 pounds down. Good, a slow leak!

With the end of the day nearing we headed on to Sydney Basin.

This mine is along Yankee Boy Basin. Great looking mine. NOTE: You can no longer camp along the river next to this mine. It's posted all over the place. It used to be one of our favorite spots to camp.

Not far from this spot we saw a pair of boot's soles from long ago. Evidenced by the fact that there were old nails sticking out of them. What was amazing is that we saw several more pairs of old boot soles here again this time. Some With leather uppers still attached.

I was excited to catch the tail end of the Wild Flower season.

A rocky section of trail in Sydney basin.

This was a great place to end the day. Oddly, I had cell phone service so I spent some time locating a tire. The fellow at Telluride tire went above and beyond by calling Big O Tires in Montrose when he realized he couldn't help me. The interesting part is that I had called Big O in Montrose and someone there had said they could not get the tire next day and if they could get it, it wouldn't be until Friday at the earliest.

Glad I kept calling around. When I called Big O back and talked to the person "Telluride Tire" had he said no problem and that he'd place the order. The only issue was that there was 1 tire showing in stock so if stock was off by, well 1, I'd be out of luck. Looks like I'll find out tomorrow if I get a new tire or not.

Then we made some giant smores before crashing out for the night. It was, after all, a long day of great sights and experiences.

Just writing this I'm exhausted.

CO. Day 3: Rico, Dunton Hot Springs, Ophir, Silverton up to Clear Lake.

2011-09-10T14:26:00.007-07:00

Morning 2, day 3.

As we ate eggs and turkey bacon the little dog came over to visit. He was expecting more snacks after he was lucky enough to get some graham crackers. This morning he wasn't as lucky since we were hungry! I caved and he was able to beg a piece of a blueberry muffin off me.

We headed down the hill. From 11,000 down to 7500 in just a few minutes. We headed towards Cortez a bit so we could take a road we'd never been on.

This road took us by, according to the map, Stoner Ski area. We saw a Stoner Ranch which was where this old, now closed, ski resort was. Funny name. (sorry, didn't get a pic as there was no where to pull over and the motor cycles wouldn't have appreciated an emergency braking maneuver) You could see the old runs with small trees starting to grow up in the middle of them. You could also see the old lift equipment still there. For the record I want to live on an old ski resort. I can see it now. "Come on over for a BBQ and all the free skiing you can handle!"

Nice piece of tarmac.

As we approached Dunton Hot Springs we saw some amazing homes. This is clearly a high dollar area. Homes are boring so I took a pic of this classic truck in someones yard instead.

You may have seen a show about vacation get aways including these hot springs. They are private and VERY expensive. Nice looking place. Not remote enough for me. :-)

The resort is comprised of restored historic old mine related buildings. The resort is supposedly an entire old town. I actually like it. Here is a link to the duntonhotsprings.com site.

As we crested the peak a few miles past Dunton the views were spectacular. Definitely worth the side trip.

Eventually we dropped down to the highway below.

Then on to Ophir!

Heading into Ophir.

Not a bad place to live! I love this little town. I'd prefer it over Telluride which is just up the road. I've never seen so many Sportsmobiles in any place besides the Overland Expo!! That's just a sign of a good town right there.

It's cheap as compared to Telluride, but expensive when you try to figure out where you're going to work! If I ever figure it out we will be quietly moving to Ophir, Ouray or Durango.

After town you head up a little strip of dirt trail to the pass.

As we drove up the trail in low range, for added torque up the steep trail, we see a person running up it! Yes, running! We're back up at 11,000 feet. Wow! My lungs hurt watching him.

As we pulled up behind him he finally turned around surprised. I guess we had snuck up on him. The 4runner does that a lot.

After talking to him for a while we learned he had graduated from Fort Lewis College in Durango and moved to Telluride. He got stuck on the top of Ophir Pass the night before due to the road being washed out.

Sure enough we had seen a tractor coming down the hill just a bit back down the hill. We offered to give him a ride, but with the interior filled with our bed I offered him a ride on the slider while holding onto the roof rack. I've used this technique before to shuttle 4-6 people a short distance. Sketchy looking, but it works.

In this photo you can see one of two sections that gave way and were cleaned up by the tractor.

Looking back towards Ophir.

Wow, just looking at this shot makes me want to be back there. You can see the road we just ascended on the right.

All of these shelf roads seem to hang onto the mountain as if they pegged in place by some invisible rigging and cables. They just don't seem possible... Clearly after coming across several land slides on this trip they all need a lot of maintenance to stay intact.

1 lift ticket, GOING UP!

We stopped at the pass. I decided to take a little hike up to one of the peaks.

Some pretty growths on the rocks up here. There isn't much else growing at this elevation.

Up at the top.

Looking toward Silverton.

Silverton. We made it! Another one of our favorite towns. Such a great place.

Just a quick note. It's not a motorcycle. Sorry.

I had to get a picture of this underground house. Well, partially underground. I love it.

We sat in the town park and ate our turkey and jalapeno jack cheese sandwiches. It is such a picturesque and peaceful place. No a single person around. ahhhhh! It was one of those spots you could just sit all day. Alas, there is too much I am dying to see!

We then headed over to the local museum.

Part of the museum is inside the old jail.

I love manufacturer plates. Often it brings to the forefront of your mind the effort and extreme hard work necessary to bring these newly manufactured items to the remote mountains of Colorado long ago. Think about it. To get this giant here today would be an undertaking. Now make all the roads here dirt, take away gasoline engine trucks and replace them with horses and trains.

Enough telephone lines for the whole town.

And old drill. Looks like a heavy and beastly thing to wield.

Great shot of a prospector, back in the day.

The museum had just about every era of equipment from the beginning until the local mines shut down in the 60's.

They had some of the most beautiful old wood stoves I've ever seen. A whole collection of them. Here is just one of the many.

A little mining city gambling. You have to get rid of that paycheck before you go back deep into the mountains for more!

Better than walking up the hill to work. These guys had nerves of steel.

Main Street, Silverton.

Not a sign you see often in Arizona.

City Hall was gorgeous. Really, most of the town had been restored with the utmost care.

Some yahoo walking around town. ;-)

Each bar or restaurant has it's own car. It's a bit hokey, but some of the vehicles are nice like this one.

Others not so much.

I can respect it though. Tourism is the towns main draw and there are only a few snow-free months each year to cash in.

Ural riding. I'd love to do this trip on one!

Recent fire.

After enjoying the town we quickly start to dislike all of the tourists. Everyone was nice, but it was a little too much. We decided to head for Clear Lake. The turn off was not too far up the highway. As we turned off on it we saw people all over.

Motorhomes, 5th wheel trailers, tent campers etc. Uh oh! There has to be a road or a place up here that is rough and remote enough to keep them out.

Beautiful views along the road in though.

The further we went up the quieter it got. Finally the road was rough enough to keep out any normal motorhome or car. Then it got worse. We only saw one 4x4 truck who was fly fishing up here. This was more like it.

There was a side road that was more rough and thin than the rest. It led up to a small stream and a mine entrance. Perfect!

We found our spot. Now time to use that stream to wash all of my riding gear! Only in Colorado can you have a private stream that comes out of the rock face a couple feet away all to yourself.

D is fantastic. :-) She helped me clean all of my dirt gear.

Pasquale was happy.

Our mine.

The tailings were pretty large and the minerals in it had tinted the water a rusted red.

Poser time.

On this trip we had evening rains almost every day. Setting up the awning was done just in case. In most cases it was just.

Then I took the bike for a little cleansing ride. I wanted to get some of the mud off of it.

Okay, I couldn't let it marinate any longer...

Carne Asada night!!!!

First rule of Carne Asada. ALWAYS cook too much. Makes great sandwiches later.

As we ate the rains came. Not a bad view from camp.

It dumped. We even got hail.

Rainbow.

Movie night!!

Just as soon as the rains came, they left.

An eerie fog moved in.

Plants growing where the tire treads would drive. A good sign of a lightly used road.

What a great day. We slept well, until "it" attacked...

In the night we heard something walking around the truck. I grabbed my surefire flashlight and popped open the door and saw it. Standing there with it's evil eyes looking back at me. BAMBI!

This deer had no fear. I yelled at it and it just stood there. Hmmm. Finally it sort of walked away with little care.

A couple minutes later I heard something nudging the locked metal trash can on the back of my truck. This time I got out and sure enough it was back. It only ran back about 10 feet and just stared at me. I had to feign running at it to make it move back further.

This repeated another 2 times and then when I heard it again I just didn't care. Off to sleep I went...

CO. Day2: Durango, Purgatory, Hermosa Trail, Rico

2011-09-09T19:53:00.010-07:00

Morning #1 and day 2. It's nice to wake up in the trees. It really signals the beginning of a trip. No alarm clock, no walls, no neighbors, no man made noises of any kind. Just some birds and the unintelligible sounds of nature.

So, I made some coffee, ate some breakfast and off we headed towards Durango.

Here is a map, but without the mountain biking portion of the day.

View Colorado 2011 in a larger map

The San Juans are such a good part of the country to be in...

Just in the drive back to the pavement there are amazing sites. Here there and all over.

We drove into Durango and then up to the Fort Lewis University. It sits up on a bluff that is a perfect overlook on the town.

We drove around side streets and checked out the many amazing looking houses around town.

At that point we decided to gas up and head out. I wanted to get a ride in! I headed for Hermosa Trail which essentially just behind the Durango Mountain Resort (Formerly "Purgatory"). We drove up the mountain and D dropped me off near the top. From there it was about a 4 mile ride to the beginning of the 2 track official trail. The trail is multi-use and open to dirt bikes, hikers, horses and mountain bikers. I saw several of each of the above on the higher use ends of the trail and everyone worked together in unison. It was great. Everyone got out of each others way and waved. I've never seen those user groups all getting along so well. Colorado magic!

Here are a few pics from the ride taken with my camera-phone.

About half way through it turns from 2 track to singletrack. The whole ride is beautiful snaking along the river. Love this trail.

About half way through the thunder and lightening started... hmmm. I can outrun this, right? I pedaled as fast as I could. Not so much, it started pouring. DUMPING. For the next hour I rode through between 4 and 12 inches of water/mud. It was rough, it was cold, but it was awesome. After fearing that I took a couple wrong turns, talking with some hunters who got caught out in the rain and chasing one fast local riding along I made it. (I now understand why the locals all ride with large packs. Filled with rain gear no doubt!)

Hope you enjoy the little video. Some of it is 2x speed and some of it is 1x. Just shot with an old GoPro helmet mount and pics taken with my camera-phone. Thank goodness for the Otterbox case or my Motorola Droid X2 never would have made it through that much rain in my wet back jersey pocket!

After the ride I tried to warm up and dry off. We made some really HOT chocolate and then headed for the hills.

Nice grocery getter in one driveway. Man I want to live here! haha. There, now that I said it, it's off my chest.

The road to camp.

Once you see a sign like this it means the amount of people on the road is decreasing. A better sign is a total lack of... signs.

A good sign to have near camp. Also a sign that some good people may be heading through camp at some point.

We ended up deciding on a camp spot on the Colorado trail at about 11,000 feet. The first night was at 6500 which was a lot higher than Phoenix's 1400 feet. A jump to 11,000 was going to be interesting. (we actually decided against a couple of higher camp sites on this night worried about feeling altitude sickness)

After staying in camp a few hours we both felt pretty good. I got cocky and had 2 beers. They knocked me on my rocker! Wow, what a great thing altitude can do for booze! haha.

I love these. I am on an IPA kick. Used to hate them, but for some reason I am digging them the hoppier the better.

Everything was covered in mud from my ride.

Pasquale the Parrot was having a bad day!

We had 1 neighbor a couple of football fields away in a little Toyota truck. Apparently she had a little dog since it ran over as we were making smores. We took a look at the ID tag and oddly enough it had an AZ area code. What a funny thing to find a neighbor all the way up here. The dog visited several more times. Always retreating when the faint whistle of it's master called out "where are you!?"

Not a bad view from camp.

What a sunset...

CO. Day1: Phoenix, Payson, Canyon De Chelly, Cortez, Mancos

2011-09-09T18:27:00.010-07:00

Time to hit the road!

Okay, the goal for this trip... well I don't know if we really had any sort of goal. If I had to have a goal it was to have an epic trip, get away from everything and not break the bank.

We did that by making sure we were stocked up so we could eat cheaply and stay self contained.

A couple things we did for food since I get asked sometimes:

I hard boiled 9 eggs. We brought 8 normal eggs (The trick is to have a trick setup like our friend made for us. It's basically plastic easter egg's with a small patch of cotton on each inside end. You put the eggs in there and then all of the plastic eggs into a sock. There you go, a way to keep eggs from breaking while offroading!)

We brought 10 oranges. 15 Banana's. D made granola (cinnamon coconut with nuts and cranraisins!), D also made 18 blueberry muffins. I baked 5 large chicken breasts and then cut them up and put them into ziplock bags. We brought mushrooms, onions, bell peppers, sweet peppers, snow peas, celery, pretzels, prunes, dates and Anaheim peppers in ziplock bags. We bought 2 pounds of Carne Asada that marinated in the fridge for use a few nights into the trip. I also brought a 10 pack of bratwurst.

We also brought bread, peanut butter and jelly, sandwich meat and cheese. These made a lot of our lunches.
I shoe horned about 8 beers into the fridge with another 10 waiting in the case. We brought 10 gallons of water and reusable aluminum water bottles. (I also brought the starbucks Via instant coffee so I could just boil water for easy coffee each morning)

So, that's a lot of food and liquids. It all fit into our Waeco CF-50 fridge/freezer and 2 small plastic rubbermaid containers. The one with snacks we kept right next to us in the car. All in all it helped us eat well, too well says my gut, and only buy 1 meal. We didn't restock on any food the whole trip and even brought home enough food to eat for a couple days back at home.

(we're such glampers...)

Now that we have that all out of the way! Let's get out of Phoenix!!!!

We headed out at noon on Friday just as early as we could get out of work. (D was working, I was still looking for new work...)

We headed up the 87 or Beeline to Payson and then on to Heber and on northeast. Here is a map of our 1st day.

View Colorado 2011 in a larger map

This place near Heber always makes me laugh. Cabaret, but a cow on the sign....? What are they trying to say?

Cruising along the plains. We got 20 MPG in the truck all loaded down. That's better than I could hope for, but taking your time going 68MPH on the flats and 55 on the up hills makes a huge difference. We were more than happy for that.

Neat old signs along this road.

This area, although high plains, is just beautiful.

On the reservation there was some sort of ride going on. We heard it was some sort of spirit ride. Each rider had different color yarn representing different spirits. I'll leave it at that and not speculate any further so I don't butcher the meaning.

We progressed into the Canyon De Chelly area not too far from sunset.

Just the normal area around here was pretty. The kind of area that you want to spend some days exploring.

That being said there are a lot of tourists and locals. When you stop at an overlook someone usually wants to sell you something, but everyone was really nice and not pushy at all.

We spoke to a kid who lived down in the valley each summer and up on the rim each winter.

A lot of pictures, but each one seems to show the rocks slightly different. I like looking at each one...

The white house. Very cool.

Not a bad place to hang out and just gaze...

We then headed over to the furthest paved lookout which was spider rock.

As the sun sunk lower it just got more amazing.

There aren't any vendors aloud at this lookout and it's a little walk from the parking area so we just enjoyed the view quietly with some others.

This bikepacker looks like he's covered some ground. Nice bike (Surly) and nice seat!

As we left the park there was one last great view before the sun fully set.

On to Four Corners. We always hit this spot at night when traveling and I'm okay with that. We don't like paying to see things and this spot is on reservation land therefore it's locked at night.

I don't know why this sign makes me so damn happy everytime I see it. Maybe because it's BIG like the mountains here. Maybe because it's made out of wood signaling the end of the desert scape. Whatever the reason, we love it!

I must admit I drove around VERY tired for a while refusing to go to the KOA or any other "fancy" established camp ground. I hate any place with a fee, bathrooms, a table etc.

After spending a couple hours finding only private land at the end of very long dirt roads I finally, in my sleepy state, realized I just needed to pull the map and head for Forest land! There it was, just north of Mancos. About 10 miles from downtown we were on a dirt road, then a side road to that road, then an even lesser side road to that one. That's how I like it!

Not a bad place to wake up! Yes, this trip I brought my bike. Thankfully.

SNORE K.C. Midnight Special 2011

2011-08-05T18:06:00.007-07:00

I've been spending a fair amount of time working for a friend down in Tucson. The same friend I used to do all of the desert racing with. It's been a while, but when an owner wanted to race his new Class 10 car I knew we were the people to do it. Haha!!

Well, I got to spend a "work" day prepping the car for the race. Desert Racing is an addiction more than a sport. There is something about it that hooks you in like a barbed fish hook and gets you to spend all of your hard earned money and time on it!!!

So needless to say I was hooked and I was going to the race. In a "support" capacity this time.
Off to the KC Midnight Special!!

We decided to take the Corolla. I love my truck, but there is something great about a car that can drive 85 all day and get 33MPG!!

It had been pouring rain all day so for a main pit we had a nice pond!
A big thanks to Mike for towing the race car to Primm, NV for us.

Pit Road.

Our neighbors had a nice 5 unlimited car.

Good looking 5-1600 car.

A mean looking Tundra in the pits.

This really good looking Tacoma was over with the SDHQ crew.

A few of the pit's had a lake literally encompassing their trailers since the raining started after everyone arrived.

Buy it up and enter desert racing's Class 12. Or better yet go and buy a class 1600 car! With only 80 horsepower you can go faster than V8 powered trucks with almost twice the suspension. Only a handful of classes are faster. Hard to believe!

This one is for sale too. For a cool $200k you could own "Sheila!"
The sound she makes is electrifying.
http://www.race-dezert.com/cgi-bin/trader/atl.cgi?ct=5&md=second&id=10071

Racing didn't start until 12:30 for us so it was a long night.

There were a lot of Class 11 bugs at the race. Always tempting as an option!

A bad night shot that was brightened up of our car 1099.

A couple more.

Nice Bronco 4x4 Prerunner.

Mike came into pit saying that the steering felt a little weird. It turns out the steering rack was completely loose. Yikes!! Glad he came in. We tightened it up and sent him on his way.

It rained a bit more off and on, but nothing to turn the whole course into a mud pit fortunately. Day 2 was nice, but knowing we had over 12 hours until the next race was brutal. That's a lot of awake hours to kill before needing to be "on" for a race.

There is a natural dirt dyke in the course so we went over to watch the cars come by right there. The slower classes were starting just before sunset so it was great for a few pics and video.

Great shot of a class 11 bug!

Wide open views!!

High attrition rate, as always in desert racing.

Some cars were really flying through the air!

Brent getting reading to head to staging.

Once there you sit and wait. Your nerves are hard to keep under control. The waiting is just about painful.
Might as well check out the other cars. Wyllie racing's tropy truck was running these immense 42" tires!

Those 35" tires look tiny!

Some 10 car competition.

The 10 car we were racing was really nice. A Jimco 2000 with a Fat built Toyota motor and a Fortin transmission. High dollar stuff!

Alright, time to race.

Brent hoping in the car. It's go time.

The only way we can help him tonight!!

And it turned out we would. He did a couple of quick laps, but then we heard he had a flat. He couldn't seem to hear us reply though. We kept asking him which tire so we would be ready. Then we heard some yelling that he was in Wyllie Racing's pit. DOH!!! We threw everything into Brent's Jeep and headed over.
(If you've never experienced the generosity of desert racers, you should. It's downright amazing. We've gotten parts including an entire Transmission from our competitor the night before the Baja 500 etc. Or having a local donate parts from their VW to keep you in the race.)
By the time we got to their pit they had the car up on a Jack. The wire bead on these BFG Baja terrains is the most stout bead I've ever seen. The bad part was that after the tire blew and it was driven on for a while it was all wrapped around the hub and into the disk brakes. It looked like he had gone ripping through some fence. So the Wyllie guys brought over some dikes and we cut it away. About half way through cutting it away we got work that Wyllie needed to come in to pit. BAD TIMING for us. Wyllie Racing was just amazing in the fact that someone, I later heard it was Wyllie's wife possibly, yelled that they had 3 minutes so they could keep helping us and get us out of here.
I can't tell you how awesome that was for them to do!! We kept hustling and the adrenaline was pumping!! We got the tire on the race car and got him moving again. No sooner did we get the gear into the jeep did Wyllie and those giant tires come racing into his pit. That was exciting to see!!
Results of the first tire and wheel: Whoops!

We headed back to our pit and hung tight. The very next lap we noticed that his other rear tire was flat. We got on the radio and started yelling at him to stop. Sadly something turned out to be wrong with his helmet so he rolled right through and past the pit. (The good and bad about Baja Terrains is that they are so stiff they can almost be run without air) He didn't even notice that it was flat.

Just about a minute later we heard that he was stopped right next to the Dike Jump with a flat. DOH! We packed up the Jeep and headed over there!
This time a group of spectators helped us change the spare tire. The jack got stuck in the up position so we all pushed the racecar off it and he finished his laps.
Result of tire two:
Whoopsie again!

A little video of the race. Keep in mind it was shot with my still camera so it's not great.

Prescott to Phoenix on Mountain Bike

2011-06-30T15:18:00.015-07:00

So, at about 2:30pm yesterday I thought it might be fun to ride from Prescott to Phoenix. The thought came to me while doing a little mountain bike ride near my house.

When I got home I checked the mileage and made a google map of it.

Looks simple enough. In fact I had ridden the same road on my dirt bike and also driven it in my 4x4 several times in years past.

I mentioned the idea to a friend and she offered to drive me up to Prescott. Thank goodness for good friends! This meant getting up at about 3, leaving by 4 and being in Prescott by 6am to hit the road.

As a bit of an act in laziness and because I wanted to see how good the pictures from my new cell phone are, all of the pics for this trip were taken with it. I never even got out my camera this trip. (just a disclaimer for any sub-par photos)
Time to hit the road.

I had planned to be ready to spend the night half way at the Crown King Saloon if need be so I was carrying a little extra weight. I packed enough calories in cliff bars, kashi bars, trail mix, Gu shots and shot blocks for three days. I also put a couple hand fulls of electrolyte tablets in. For water I had my 120 ounce camelback bladder filled along with two water bottles.
I brought some sandals, swim trunks, a spare shirt, a hat, a couple of tubes, a pump, patch kit, SPOT, a camera, the GoPro video camera, a small co2 catridge, some Stans Tubeless liquid, a Leatherman, a small first aid kit, sunscreen, my wallet, my phone and some other small odds and ends. This made for a heavy pack considering I almost always ride with no camelback at all.

There is something about riding a bike that lets you see so much more of nature. It has something to do with how quiet and slow it is compared to motorized transportation. I saw a ton of deer and even a small heard of Javelina.

Since I hadn't planned this ride out a whole 12 hours in advance I felt decent, but not great. I had ridden the two preceding days and even gave my legs a workover at the gym two days before. After a few miles it didn't matter. I knew I could keep pedaling forever as long as I kept a slow pace and took my time. I didn't have a lot of power, but my legs felt like they could spin forever at this easy pace.

The first and last truck I saw was a Forest Service pickup. I was surprised about a half hour later when I started to catch someones dust. It's funny how that triggers the competitive instinct in me. Of course a truck can out run a bike, but I was excited to catch it. It was the same FS Truck from earlier. Haha, it's the little things...

A little while later I came to Palace Station. I think the Forest Service uses it and someone is usually stationed here. Hence the American flag being raised.

So far this trip was perfect. All of the solitude I was looking for. My phone was tracking me via GPS as was the SPOT messenger, but I had the phone's Cell Signal turned off. (It helps to conserve the phones battery, not that I'd want to talk to anyone anyhow)

Yankee Doodle is a great section of singletrack that is rideable by dirt bikes and mountain bikes. No time for that today, but in the past my KTM and I had a great time on there.

Besides chasing the Forest Service truck I was having a good time taking it easy and not pushing it at all. That can be a hard thing to do for me so it was really nice to settle into a pace and just GET OVER IT. Going fast that is. I tend to compete with myself, with a deer running next to me, with some perceived time goal of reaching a certain spot etc. Not this time.

About to start the climb up to Crown King. It was "relatively" hot up here. Nothing compared to what was to come, but at the time I was pouring sweat and going through a lot of my water.

A ways up the climb I stopped for the first real break. Ate some snacks and took a couple pics. The quiet is that perfect sort of quiet that can be ruined by even one other person. It was DEAD quiet. So nice.

I was excited to make it to town. Only being 10 AM I knew there was no way I was going to stay here tonight. I did want to kill some time so when I hit the lowlands it wasn't quite as hot. That plan blew up, but more on that later.

I hung out, charged my phone, drank a couple beers, a dozen glasses of water and ate a double bacon burger with fries. (...and about a half a shaker of salt!)
I was reminded why I was doing this while in the bar. This place used to be so quiet and nice. Today there were two giant flat screen TV's blaring out the Casey Anthony trial. I had no interest in getting sucked into a news story about a mother who killed her daughter so I tried to zone out and enjoy my beer. (and do some people watching)

After a couple hours I couldn't stand sitting and watching daytime television anymore so I hit the general store and headed out. My mental clock was telling me it was still WAY too early to head down into the heat and I'd have been better off not stopping and just heading down the mountain at 10AM, but oh well. When you feel like going, you gotta go!!

I had pulled a ham string so I picked up some Ibuprofen to ease the pain. Otherwise I was feeling great.

From Crown King you do a pretty good climb heading towards the old Bradshaw City site, but once on the CK back road it's a lot of down hill for a while.

This area has a lot of mining history. The hills are littered with tailings and old mining roads. I could spend days up here exploring each one to their end. Looking for remnants of a time long passed.

Some old mine remnants.

The creek bed still has some tailings in it. They would be the bright orange and yellow bits of dirt.

At this point I had descended to an elevation where the temps had risen to over 100 degrees. It was hot, but nothing I couldn't handle. It just went from being "hot" and still fun which I had earlier to more of a "suck it up" type of fun. It's that kind of fun where I get pleasure in knowing that most people wouldn't be caught out here in this weather so I was almost guaranteed solitude.

There is an old cabin that has some people living in it right along the Crown King back road. I spot it via this sign each time I pass. I've seen smoke curling from the chimney's before. They keep the entrance to their property obscured pretty well, but I wonder what they do and if they live here year round.

When I saw the sign out of the corner of my eye I promptly turned my head and then let my front tire wash out. Lets just say my hand didn't feel great the rest of the ride. Stupid mistake, but thank fully nothing was broken.

Another break in the shade. At this point I'd take a break every 20 minutes or so. Usually only for 2 or 3 minutes, but it was always enough to get the heart rate back down and keep me from overheating.

Throughout the entire ride you can see mining claims. Here is one with a little cabin. I've seen people using a sluice box, panning or even using higher tech generators to sort through the dirt and rock looking for their own little fortune.

Another little cabin.

Another one of many breaks. I was now low enough in elevation to feel the full heat of the Phoenix valley high for the day. At this point I could feel every bit of the 111 degrees of heat. I was just trying to keep movements slow and steady. At these temps once you overheat it's almost impossible to cool back down.
Now it was simply a game. A game of "Are you tough enough and smart enough." If I got excited or impatient and road faster I would start literally streaming sweat and I'd dehydrate quickly. That and I'd start to get my body temp to a very dangerous level.

It was all a game of slow movements and stopping often. Walking the steeper hills and trying to climb the others while staying seated and pedaling as slow as I dare without falling over. (In a sick sort of way I love it.)

At this point it was still fun, but in a completely different sort of way than the day had started off. The morning was just plain fun. Solitude, beauty and nice weather. Now it was a serious game of survival and a great sense of self accomplishment if I could make it to pavement unassisted.

This ground was radiating such a high level of heat. I can't describe what it felt like... When I would take a break the temp would actually climb as I sat myself down on it.

I had been day dreaming about coming to this view for a couple hours. As soon as I saw it I took a pic and then realized I still had a good 5 miles more to go and a couple of hills to climb. Damn...
Watching people unload kayaks was tough. I didn't dare stop and get in for fear that I'd never finish the ride. Once I got relief from the heat I don't think someone could have gotten me to start back up at gun point.
I was just concentrating on not getting excited and speeding up. If I dared speed up I'd overheat in just a couple minutes. Just like my favorite book as a kid. "The Little Engine That Could." I just kept saying to myself "I think I can, I think I can!"

I realized fully how serious it was. At the same time I knew that getting anxiety about it would just make me worry and heat up. I had to accept the position I was in and remember that all I had to do was stop and call D if I needed to. (at this point my cell phone seemed to have some limited reception.)

And I did. I rolled up to the most amazing sight of my girlfriend, a car with air conditioning and a paved road. All in all it was a great trip. I can't wait to do some more of the mountain portions of this and other roads/trails. Once the weather cools off I look forward to doing this trip again. (I didn't take any triumphant pictures at the end because my body was barely there and all I could think was break down the bike, throw it in the trunk, and get INSIDE now!)

What a blast, what an experience. I'm sure there aren't too many others who have done that ride in this weather.

White Mountains "test the new transfer case" trip...

2011-06-16T20:23:00.003-07:00

So, the new transfer case was swapped in and ready to go. The new one (salvage yard unit with 44K miles from a 2000 4runner) is on the right.

Then I put in new drive shafts later in the week and wired up the Auto Disconnecting Differential.
Yikes!

It was a bit scary cutting into the wiring for the 4WD ECU, but with some help from the guys at we were able to figure out what needed to be done. I bought a momentary switch and wired it up.
All better and the ADD is now working.

The drive up to our "secret spot" outside of Payson.

The first time we came to this river we thought the road ended, but the GPS and map insisted it went on.

You have to drive with the water down the stream around the corner just a bit and then exit around the corner.

This is the secondary dirt road that we went out a ways. Then we hit a tertiary dirt road that was even more primitive with knee high grass. That's when you know you're remote!

The sunset was great!

Time for dinner!!

NO CAMPFIRES right now. Arizona's largest wildfire on record was currently burning at over 500,000 acres. We did however cook marshmellows over the old Coleman stove. Mmmm!

Time for breakfast and COFFEE.

Some very healthy looking centurion plants.

We followed this old ranch road to it's end on top of a really rough hill. Got to use low range and the lockers at the end of the road. Glad to see everything working properly.

We kept exploring every side trail we came across on the more well used ranch road. When I see a trail is maintained by a local 4WD club I have to assume it's worth seeing.

It was worth it. There was one tight spot where I had to do a 9 point turn around and I decided to push it a bit and speed things up... Well, I put the front end a little to close to the tree and a strong branch decided to rip one of my lights off. Whoops!

A nice and disused fire pit at the turn around spot at the end of the trail.

On the way back we noticed a huge hole off to the side of the trail.

It just kept going and going.

I did the rock test and a small rock fell for a couple seconds before hitting bottom so that's pretty deep!

Next we rolled into Payson for some gas and supplies and saw this beast! Looking underneath I think it was based on a Ford Super Duty.

Then we headed over to another section of the East Verde that we crossed earlier in the day, but much further up stream.

Way to many people so we kept on keepin on toward the town of Young.

Cool trees around here. About 6400 feet.

Headed into Young on a back road. No fun taking the main road through Haigler Creek or from the dirt road. (I should note that ALL roads into young are dirt, but the three main ones have other people and some traffic so I try to avoid them)

D asked to drive!?!? What? This was going to be great. I always want to teach her so in case something happened to me she could get us out of the outback. Or if she found herself caught in some mud, snow etc she would know what to do.
She drove in everything from 2wd High, 4wd High, 4wd Low and even got to use one of the two lockers. Good job!

Nice old ranch house in Young.

Pleasant Valley where the town of Young sits. For more info on this area and the Pleasant Valley War check this out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleasant_Valley_War

An area that was burnt in one of the other large fires we had a few years ago.

The next days camp site is tucked up on a little hill.
Nice and quiet. Two nights of not seeing or hearing another person. That's how I like it.

This little guy left his shell and was no longer home.

A good book, a good beer, and a good woman. I think I should write a country song now.

As the sun set the view got better and better. This is looking off into Apache land.

The moon making an early appearance.

I think whatever made this web bit my legs throughout the night. Must, stop, itching!!!

Quite a steep hill.

Always leave gates as you've found them or if there's a sign default to what it says. Just for those yahoo's who don't think that if a gates closed OR open it's for a reason!!
Cool ranch name too!

We headed out a road I had been on, actually I had mapped it for the Forest Service a few years go, but I had never gone through it to the end since it's outside of the actual Forest towards the end. Looking down to Punkin Center.

Last part of the dirt before hitting a little highway and then home.

Moto Trip to AZ Highlands!

2011-06-01T08:12:00.008-07:00

For Memorial day weekend D and I decided we at least needed a mini adventure. The 4x4 was still not completely well so I prepped Hammond the Triumph and we hit the road early Saturday morning.

We stopped in Wickenburg for Breakfast. The Horseshoe is some great grub. D said she was hungry and wanted the full order of Biscuits and Gravy, but I had seen the picture online of how giant it was. I told her to get the half order. She was incredulous and said "that's only one biscuit!! It won't be enough!"
I got a full stack of cinnamon raisin French Toast. The french toast was great and more importantly the "half" order of biscuits and gravy was ENORMOUS! The "one" biscuit was more like 4 biscuits with huge chunks of sausage. It filled the plate and these were not small plates.
Vindicated in my pressuring her to get a half order we waddled out to the bike and proceeded towards Skull Valley.

As we climbed the switchbacks I was reminded how great this state is. No one was on the road and the weather was perfect. We stopped in Skull Valley for a sec to strecth and then headed off the winding back road to Prescott. (Preskit!)

We met up with a buddy named Rex. He rides a nice old Gold Wing. One of the first years of this legendary bike. Those things run like a top!
(the Raven has amazing food by the way! And an immense amount of micro beers on tap that is ever changing!!)

After a quick chat at the Raven we headed toward Prescott Valley to see another buddy named Chris. Chris writes and photographs for Overland Journal. He's an all around impressive person and traveler. He had been in Mexico and parts unknown for a hiatus from the world and it was great to catch up.

Off to Mingus mountain and Jerome we went!!
Jerome is a old mining town perched on the side of a hill. An immense amount of copper was taken out of these hills and like Bisbee it was kept alive after the mines closed by artists and eccentrics who moved in and kept the old buildings from falling down.

On a weekend like this the town can turn into a sort of "weekend warrior" biker central, but it's still worth a visit.

This was one of a couple decent bikes in town. Too many big, fat, chromed out garbage trucks otherwise. Thankfully when it comes to bikes the squids are easy to spot.

Lots of tight little side streets with more great old buildings.

Junk or art. I'd guess it was art since it was some neat junk to look at!

Old house of ill repute now sells nicknack's and Motor Co shirts! What a difference in a way to make money.

My favorite part of any old town are the pieces that have been preserved, but not restored. This old bank entrance way was left and thankfully the elements in Jerome aren't too hard on it.

Looking up to the ceiling at the same entrance.

Just another view of the main bar in town. We sat on these steps for a bit and hung out. As we noticed all of the locals with coolers drinking beer we wondered if it was legal to drink in this park. Sure enough a local Sheriff came along and sat down with all of the locals so I guess that answers our question. It seemed like a good Saturday activity when you live in town is to either work and sell your wares to the tourists or sit on these steps and throw a few cold ones back.

This is the other bike in town that I'm calling cool. Cool because it's got the most insane exhaust system for a little Honda four I've seen and because it clearly had some personality.

We hit up "Haunted Hamburgers" for some dinner. Not a bad burger at all. This place is pretty new. The view was great from "up" at the patio. We could look out and see the red rocks of Sedona in the background.

The "Sedona" view from Jerome. This building had some sort of things on top of it. Clearly very old. I couldn't quite figure out what it is though!

Hammond parked in front of the old Bank.

As the sun got low into the sky we headed for Mingus Mountain to camp. Being Memorial day weekend and having a dislike of established camp grounds, paved camping spots, toyhaulers and people in general we headed down Cherry road looking for a remote camping spot. After several miles of dual sporting the Triumph we found a great spot well out of site of any other campers.

Our Friend Ginger Fire drove her truck this trip since we had nearly killed her dirt bike on the last offroad adventure and it still needed a couple of things fixed before going out again. Since she was trucking it Morgan got to come along!!

Note our tasteful 2 person tent and her 3 bed 2 bath monstrosity!!!!

Hammond was liking being in the dirt!

We sat by the fire. Drank a few beers and made smores. Not a bad day.
This little fella was hanging onto the tent.

This little tent worked great. I have a smaller tent for solo moto trips, but this tent worked perfectly for 2.

Dust bandana on and Danica in the truck so I don't have to worry about riding two up on the loose gravel and we were off!

I think it was right about at this point I knew I needed to pick up a Triumph Scrambler. I'd love a dirt bike "light" to cruise the trails. Not Light as in light weight because these bikes are pigs, but light as in not for singletrack or hardcore dirt bike riding.

And we're almost there!

Getting there!

Generally this is a good sign meaning lots of tight corners. In this case it meant the road through Jerome was dirt. Oh well, I had already done plenty of that this morning!

Jerome pearched on the hill.

Throughout this area are signs of mining. Old structures and the telltale "tailings" showing where mine shafts were dug.

J for Jerome. Gotta love how cities always used to do this. Before good maps and GPS you can really see how seeing a letter or the whole name of a town for many miles outside of it would be nice to confirm that you had in fact found the place you were looking for.

One of two old filling stations still standing in Jerome. The other one is now a house. It's neat to see these places still standing and picture the old Model T pulling in for gas. There is no gas in Jerome currently so you have to drive to Cottonwood to fill up.

Close up of that sign.

D fits well on the little Trump. We are both comfy on it like two peas in a pod. For really long distances it I get cramped up a bit like any bike, but even after this epic loop we were embarking on today we both felt pretty good.
Speaking of the loop I didn't mention what we had decided.
We pulled into a gas station in Cottonwood to fill up. The plan was to head back to Phoenix, but we were so close to Sedona and flag, the weather was perfect and I had never ridden some of the upcoming roads on a motorcycle so we decided to head our own way. Ginger Fire headed back to Phoenix and off we went to Sedona.

Sedona was a zoo with tourists, but we had just come for the roads and the views so we kept moving and enjoying the ride.

The road ahead! Woohoo!!!!

The road snakes right along Oak Creek up this canyon towards Flagstaff.

We pulled into Flagstaff and it had gotten pretty chilly! Glad I brought along my leather jacket! We stopped at the relatively new Lumberyard brewery for some lunch. When I was going to school at NAU this place was actually a lumberyard, who would have thunk it!
The food is really pretty darn good. It's owned by the same people as the Beaver Street Brewery which is always a good place to grab some grub. At this point the wind had really kicked up. A friend shot me a text warning me to stay away from Flag because the wind gusts were up to 65MPH. Whoops, a little late for that.

We headed out Lake Mary Road and stopped by my old house where we rented during college. The wind on Lake Mary was unlike anything I've ever experience on a motorcycle.
The gusts were strong and we road at a 15 degree tilt as the side wind hit us. That was when there was tree cover. When a small lake like Lake Mary or Mormon Lake would appear the gusts would increase exponentially and we'd get blown almost into the other lane and then recover by leaning to a near 40 degree angle. It was weird and unsettling to say the least.
For the first time in my life while riding next to one of the lakes I actually thought the front tire might get washed out by the wind. No bueno! Then another first, we actually leaned right into the wind while making a left banking turn!! It was wrong in so many ways to lean the opposite direction that we wanted to go!!

Slowly we made progress. Our necks and arms were tired from hanging on.
I assumed as soon as we got out of the area the wind would die down.
If I had known that every mile up until pulling into my garage in Scottsdale would be heavy winds we would have gotten a hotel and waited it out!

Even with the wind, this was a great section of road to ride!

In Payson we were tired, cold and just wind blown bad. We took mainstreet down to a little community lake and just layed in the grass soaking up the sun. That half hour did more to relax me then the rest of the whole weekend. Funny how just stopping to smell the roses does that. What a great ride. We did a lot of miles the second day, but every bit of it was an adventure and I wouldn't have it any other way. :-)

Saguaro Lake

2011-05-24T20:29:00.003-07:00

Headed out to Saguaro lake with some friends last weekend. Some easy offroading along with a couple of tough hill climbs.

As Jon said to me when he saw this pic, why don't pictures ever show how steep stuff is?!?

The rover didn't make it up this one. Lots of off camber so open diffs didn't like it.
Then there is a nice peninsula to drive out onto. Fortunately, the only other folks out on this road left pretty quickly.

Nothing like pulling right up to the edge.

Weeee!!!!!!!

Hanging out.

Rooster tail!

Not a bad simple day with some easy trails.